A thread on the value of changing direction in rallies:

Crosscourt shots are more common than down-the-line shots because the net is lower in the middle.

But crosscourt rallies can coax players to “cheat” to one side of the centerline, leaving part of the court open

Federer controls this point, slowly opening up the court with crosscourt forehands. The winner was struck at the right moment; you can see that Nadal, after retrieving the penultimate forehand, doesn’t recover to the center of the court, leaving a clear lane open for the FHDTL.

Djokovic is slow to recover to the center here, and Nadal takes advantage with a FHDTL straight into the open court. Djokovic somehow gets it back, but the finishing smash is fairly simple.

Gasquet masterfully opens up the court here. He probably should’ve changed direction one shot earlier, as his last CCBH didn’t have as sharp of an angle as the penultimate CCBH, but Zverev was halfway between the left sideline and the centerline when Gasquet struck the BHDTL.

A really interesting point here. Nadal has the option to change direction; Federer is well to the left of the centerline. Federer opens up the court with a BHDTL, then hammers a FHDTL for the winner. If you pass up a chance to change direction, it may cost you.

An incredible series of shots preceded this clip, but look how it ends — Djokovic moves Nadal wide to his forehand with a deep CCBH, Nadal doesn’t recover all the way to the center, and Djokovic powers a BHDTL right through the open court for a winner.

Seeing these makes me wonder why players don’t recover to the center after every shot (on some of these there wasn’t time), and I think it’s in anticipation of the next shot. It’s a calculated risk to leave a lane open for a winner. Much of the time, players miss the DTL shot.

Changing direction can also be used to wrong-foot the opponent. Check out how badly Murray catches out Djokovic here. Djokovic makes a superhuman recovery to win the point, but Murray’s IOBH was brilliant. Totally crossed Djokovic up.

A different example: this FHDTL works not because Nadal had opened up the court (though Djokovic was slightly cheating to his left), but because it was unexpected. Nadal rarely hits FHDTLs off of FHDTLs. Instead of changing direction here, he went back up the same line.

And again. This FHDTL crosses Federer up severely; he does incredibly well to get his stretched return so close to the baseline.

After some remarkable defense, Djokovic wins this point with an unusual IOBH from the center of the court. This shot was so unexpected that Federer didn’t move for it. Brilliant.

Federer hits a pretty similar shot here.

Djokovic opens up a clear path down the line with a good CCBH, then crushes the BHDTL for a winner.

This is an incredible point from Federer. Murray is pushed so far off the court that he’s barely past the left sideline when the winner flies past him.

That’s about it for the thread. Thanks for reading!